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AN 



ADDRE88, 

DELIVERED ON THE CELEBRATION OF THE 

ABOLITION or SLAVERY, 

IN THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, 
JULY 5, 1827. 



BY NATHANIEL PAUL, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST AFRICAN BAPTIST SOCIETY 
IN THE CITY OF ALBANY. 



Published by the Trustees for the benefit of said Society. 



ALBANY : 

PRINTED By JOHN B. VAN STEENBEftOH. 

1827. 



'^{ 



Through the long lapse of ages, it has been com- 
men for nations to record whatever was peculiar 
or interesting in the course of their historj. Thus 
when Heaven, provoked by the iniquities of man, has 
visited the earth with the pestilence which moves in 
darkness or destruction, that wasteth at noonday, and 
has swept from existence, by thousands, its numer- 
ous inhabitants ; or when the milder terms of mer- 
cy have been dispensed in rich abundance, and the 
goodness of God has crowned the efforts of any 
people with peace and prosperity ; they have been 
placed upon their annals, and handed down to fu- 
ture ages, both for their amusement and profit. And 
as the nations which have already passed away, 
have been careful to select the most important 
events, peculiar to themselves, and have recorded 
them for the good of the people that should suc- 
ceed them, so will we place it upon our history; 
and we will tell the good story to our children and 
to our children's children, down to the latest pos- 
terity, that on the fourth day of July, in the year of 
our Lord 1827, slavery was abolished in the state 
of New-York. 

Seldom, if ever, was there an occasion which re- 
quired a public acknowledgment, or that deserved to 
be retained with gratitude of heart to the all-wise 
disposer of events, more than the present on which 
we have assembled. 

It is not the mere gratification of the pride of the 



art, or any vairt ambitious notion, that has influen- 
oed us to make our appearance in the public streets 
of our city, or to assemble in the sanctuary of the 
Most High this morning ; but we have met to offer 
our tribute of thanksgiving and praise to almighty 
God for his goodness; to retrace the acts and ex- 
press our gratitude to our public benefactors, and 
to stimulate each other to the j)erformance of eve- 
ry good and virtuous act, which now does, or here- 
after may devolve as a duty upon us, as freemen and 
citizens, in common m ith the rest of community. 

And if ever it were necessary for me to offer an 
apology to an audience for my absolute inability to' 
perform a task assigned me, I feel that the present 
is the period. However, relying, for suppoi*ton the 
hand of Him who has said, ''I will never leave nor 
forsake ;" and confiding in your charity for every 
necessary allowance, I venture to engage in the ar- 
duous undertaking. 

In contemplating the subject before us, in connec- 
tion with the means by which so glorious an event 
has been accomplished, Ave find much which re- 
quires our deep humiliation and our most exalted' 
praises. We are permitted to behold one of the 
most pernicious and abominable of all enterprises, in 
which the depravity of human nature ever led man 
to engage, entirely eradicated. The power of the ty- 
rant is subdued, the heart of the oppressed is cheered 
liberty is proclaimed to the captive, and the open- 
ing of the prison to those who were bound, and he 
who had long been the miserable victim of cruelty 
and degradation, is elevated to the common rank in 



6 

which our benevolent Creator first designed, thai 
man should move, — all of which have been effec-' 
ted by means the most simple, yet perfectly eflB- 
cient : Not by those fearful judgments of the al-' 
mighty, which have so often fell upon the different 
parts of the earth ; which have overturned nations 
and kingdoms ; scattered thrones and sceptres ; nor 
is the glory of the achievement, tarnished with the 
horrors of the field of battle. We hear not the 
cries of the widow and the fatherless ; nor are our 
hearts affected with the sight of garments rolled in 
blood ; but all has been done by the diffusion 
and influence of the pure, yet powerful principles of 
benevolence, before which the pitiful impotcncv 
of tyranny and oppression, is scattered and disper- 
sed, like the chaff before the rage of the whirl- 
wind. 

I will not, on this occasion, attempt fully to detail 
the abominations of the traffic to which we have al- 
ready alluded. Slavery, with its concomitants and 
consequences, in the best attire in which it can pos- 
sibly be presented, is but a hateful monster, the ve- 
ry demon of avarice and oppression, from its first in- 
troduction to the present time ; it has been among all 
nations the scourge of heaven, and the curse of the 
earth . It is so contrary to the laws which the God of 
nature has laid down as the rule of action by which 
the conduct of man is to be regulated towards his fel- 
low man, which binds him to love his neighbour as 
himself, that it ever has, and ever will meet the deci- 
ded disapprobation of heaven. 

In whatever form we behold it, its visage is sa» 



(anic, its origin the very offspring ot hell, and in all 
cases its effects are grevious. 

On the shores of Africa, the horror of the scene 
commences; here, the merciless tyrant, divested of 
every thing human, except the form beghis the ac- 
tion. The laws of God and the tears of the oppressed 
are alike disregarded ; and with more than sav- 
age barbarity, husbands and wives, parents and 
children, are parted to meet no more : and, if not 
doomed to an untimely death, while on the passage, 
yet are they for life consigned to a captivity still 
more terrible; a captivity, at the very thought of 
which, every heart, not already biassed with unhal- 
lowed prejudices, or callous to every tender im- 
pression, pauses and revolts; exposed to the caprice 
of those whose tender mercies are cruel ; unprotec- 
ted by the laws of the land, and doomed to drag out 
miserable existence, without the remotest shadow 
of a hope of deliverence, until the king of terrors 
shall have executed his office, and consigned them 
to the kinder slumbers of death. But its pernicious 
tendency may be traced still farther : not only are 
its effects of the most disastrous character, in rela- 
tion to the slave, but it extends its intluence to the 
slave holder; and in many instances it is hard to say 
which is most wretched, the slave or the master. 

After the fall of man, it would seem that God, 
foreseeing that pride and arrogance would be 
the necessary consequences of the apostacy, and 
that man would seek to usurp undue authority 
over his fellow, wisely ordained that he should ob- 
tain his bread by the sweat of his brow ; but con- 



trary to this sacred mandate of heaven, slavery ha* 
been introduced, supporting the one in all the ab- 
surd luxuries of life, at the expense of the liberty 
and independence of the other. Point me to any 
section of the earth where slavery, to any consider- 
able extent exists, and I will point you to a people 
whose morals are corrupted ; and when pride, vani* 
4y and profusion are permitted to range unrestrain- 
ed in all their desolating effects, and thereby idle- 
ness and luxury are promoted, under the influence of 
which, man, becoming insensible of his duty to his 
God and his fellow creature ; and indulging in all the 
pride and vanity of his own heart, says to big soul, 
thou hast much goods laid up for man)" years. But 
while thus sporting, can it be done with impunity ? 
Has conscience ceased to be active ? Are there no 
forebodings of a future day of punishment, and of 
meeting the merited avenger? Can he retire after 
the business of the day and repose in safety? Let 
the guards around his mansion, the barred doors of 
his sleeping room, and the loaded instruments of 
death beneath his pillow, answer the question. — 
And if this were all, it would become us, perhaps, to 
cease to murmur, and bow in silent submission to 
that providence which had ordained this present 
state of existence, to be but a life of degradation and 
suffering. 

Since affliction is but the common lot of men, Ibis 
life, at best, is but a vapor that ariseth and soon pas- 
seth away. Man, said the inspired sage, that is born 
of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble ; -and 
in a certain sense, it is not material what our pre- 



sent situation may be, for short is the period that 
humbles all to the dust, and places the monarch and 
the beggar, the slave and the master, upon equal 
thrones. But although this life is short, and atten- 
ded with one entire scene of anxious perplexity, and 
few and eril are the days of our pilgrimage ; yet man 
is advancing to another state of existence, bounded 
only by the vast duration of eternity ! in which hap- 
piness or misery await us all. The great author of our 
existence has marked out the way that leads to the 
glories of the upper world, and through the redemp- 
tion which is in Christ Jesus, salvation is offered to 
all. But slavery forbids even the approach of mer- 
cy ; it stands as a barrier in the way to ward off the 
influence of divine grace ; it shuts up the avenues 
of the soul, and prevents its receiving divine instruc- 
tion; and scarce does it permit its miserable captives 
to know that there is a God, a Heaven or a Hell! 

Its more than detestable picture has been attemp- 
ted to be portrayed by the learned, and the wise, 
but all have fallen short, and acknowledged their 
inadequacy to the task, and have been compelled 
to submit, by merely giving an imperfect shadow of 
its reality. Even the immortal Wilberforce, a name 
that can never die while Africa lives, after exer- 
ting his ingenuity, and exhausting the strength of his 
masterly mind, resigns the effort, and calmly sub- 
mits by saying, " never was there, indeed, a system 
so replete with wickedness and cruelty to whatever 
part of it we turn our eyes ; we could find no com- 
fort, no satisfaction, no relief. It was the gracious or- 
dinance of providence, both in thenatural and moral 



world, that good should often arise out of evil. Hur- 
ricanes clear the air; and the propagation of truth 
was promoted by persecution, pride, vanity, and 
profusion contributed often, in their remoter conse- 
quences, to the happiness of mankind. In common, 
what was in itself evil and vicious, was permitted 
to carry along with it some circumstances of pal- 
liation. The Arab was hospitable, the robber brave ; 
we did not necessarily find cruelty associated with 
fraud or meanness with injustice. But here the case 
was far otherwise. It was the prerogative of this de- 
testable traffic, to separate from evil its concomi- 
tant good, and to reconcile discordant mischief. It 
robbed war of its generosity, it deprived peace of 
its security. We saw in it the vices of polished so- 
ciety, without its knowledge or its comforts, and the 
evils of barbarism without its simplicity ; no age, 
no sex, no rank, no condition, was exempt from the 
fatal influence of this wide wasting calamity. Thus 
it attained to the fullest measure of its pure, unmix- 
ed, unsophisticated wickedness ; and scorning all 
competition or comparison, it stood without a rival 
in the secure and undisputed possession of its detes- 
table pre-eminence. 

Such were the views which this truly great and 
good man, together with his fellow philanthropists, 
took of this subject, and such are the strong terms 
in which he has seen fit to express his utter abhor 
rence of its origin and effects. Thus have we hinted 
at some of the miseries connected with slavery. And 
while I turn my thoughts back and survey what is 
past, I see our forefathers seized by the hand of the 

2 



10 

rude ruffian, and torn from their native homes and 
all that they held dear or sacred. 1 follow them 
down the lonesome way, until I see each safely pla- 
ced on board the gloomy slave ship ; 1 hear the 
passive groan, and the clanking of the chains which 
bind them. I see the tears which follow each other 
in quick succession adown the dusky cheek. 

I view them casting the last and longing look to- 
wards the land which gave them birth, until at 
length the ponderous anchor is weighed, and the 
canvass spread to catch the favored breeze ; I view 
them wafted onward until they arrive at the destin- 
ed port; I behold those who have been so unfortu- 
nate as to survive the passage, emerging from their 
loathsome prison, and landing amidst the noisy rat- 
tling of the massy fetters which confine them ; I 
see the crowd of trafficers in human flesh gather- 
ing, each anxious to seize the favored opportunity of 
enriching himself with their toils, their tears and their 
blood. 1 view them doomed to the most abject 
state of degraded misery, and exposed to suffer all 
that unrestrained tyranny can inflict, or that human 
nature is capable of sustaining. 

Tell me, ye mighty waters, why did ye sustain 
the ponderous load of misery ? or speak, ye winds, 
and say why it was that ye executed your office to 
waft them onward to the still more dismal state ; and 
ye proud waves, why did you refuse to lend your aid 
and to have overwhelmed them with your billows ? 
Then should they have slept sweetly in the bosom 
ofthe great deep, and so have been hid from sorrow, 
a cuiate God, be not angry with us, 



]1 

while we come into this thy sanctuary, and make 
the bold inquiry in this thy holy temple, why it was 
that thou didst look on with the calm indifference 
of an unconcerned spectator, when thy holy law 
was violated, thy divine authority despised and a 
portion of thine own creatures reduced to a state 
of mere vassalage and misery? Hark! while he an- 
swers from on high: hear him proclaiming fiom the 
skies— Be still, and know that I am God ! Clouds 
and darkness are round about me; yet righteous- 
ness and judgment are the habitation of my throne. 
I do my will and pleasure in the heavens above, and 
in the earth beneath ; it is my sovereign preroga- 
tive to bring good out of evil, and cause the wrath of 
man to praise me, and the remainder of that wrath 
I will restrain. 

Strange, indeed, is the idea, that such a system, 
fraught with such consummate wickedness, should 
ever have found a place in this the otherwise hap- 
piest of all countries. a country, the very soil of 

which is said to be consecrated to liberty, and its 
fruits the equal rigfhts of man. But strange as the 
idea may seem, or paradoxical as it may appear to 
those acquainted with the constitution of the gov- 
ernment, or who have read the bold declaration of 
this nation's independence ; yet it is a fact that can 
neither be denied or controverted, that in the Uni- 
ted States of America, at the expiration of fifty 
years after its becoming a free and independent na- 
tion, there are no less than fifteen hundred thousand 
human beings still in a state of unconditional vas- 
alage. 



12 

Yet America is first in the profession of the love 
of liberty, and loudest in proclaiming liberal senti- 
ments towards all other nations, and feels herself 
insulted, to be branded with any thing bearing 
the appearance of tyranny or oppression. Such are 
the palpable inconsistencies that abound among us 
and such is the medley of contradictions which stain 
the national character, and renders the American 
republic a by-word, even among despotic nations. 
But while we pause and wonder at the contradicto- 
ry sentiments held forth by the nation, and contrast 
its profession and practice, we are happy to have 
it in our power to render an apology for the exist- 
ence of the evil, and to offer an excuse for the fra- 
mers of the constitution. It was before the 
sons of Columbia felt the yoke of their oppressors, 
and rose in their strength to put it off that this 
land become contaminated with slavery. Had this 
not been the case, led by the spirit of pure repub- 
licanism, that then possessed the souls of those pat- 
riots who were struggling for liberty, this soil would 
have been sufficiently guarded against its intrusion, 
and the people of these United States to this day, 
would have been strangers to so great a curse. It 
was by the permission of the British parliament, 
that the human species first became an article of mer- 
chandize among them, and as they were accessary 
to its introduction, it well becomes them to be, first, 
as a nation, in arresting its progress and effecting its 
expulsion. It was the immortal Clarkson, a name 
that will be associated with all that is sublime in 



13 

mercy, until the final consummation of all things, 
who first looking abroad, beheld the sufferings of 
Africa, and looking at home, he saw his country 
stained with her blood. He threw aside the vest- 
ments of the priesthood, and consecrated himself to 
the holy purpose of rescuing a continent from ra- 
pine and murder, and of erasing this one sin from 
the book of his nation's iniquities. Many were the 
difficulties to be encountered, many were the hard- 
ships to be endured, many were the persecutions to 
be met with ; formidable, indeed, was the opposing 
party. The sensibility of the slave merchants and 
planters was raised to the highest pitch of resent- 
ment. Influenced by the love of money, every scheme 
was devised, every measure was adopted, every 
plan was executed, that might throw the least barri- 
er in the way of the holy cause of the abolition of 
this traffic. The consequences of such a measure 
were placed in the most appalling light that ingen- 
ious falsehood could invent ; the destruction of com- 
merce, the ruin of the merchants, the rebellion of 
the slaves, the massacre of the planters, were all 
artfully and fancifully pictured, and reduced to a 
certainty in the minds of many of the members of 
parliament, and a large proportion of the commu- 
nity. But the cause of justice and humanity were 
not to be deserted by him and his fellow philanthro- 
pists, on account of difficulties. We have seen them 
for twenty years persevering against all opposition, 
and surmounting every obstacle they found in their 
way. Nor did they relax aught of their exertions, 



11 

until the cries of the oppressed having roused the 
sensibility of the nation, the island empress rose in 
her strength, and said to this foul tralfic, " thus far 
hast thou gone, but thou shalt go no farther." Hap- 
py for us, my brethren, that the principles of benev- 
olence were not exclusively confined to the isle of 
Great Britain. There have lived, and there still 
do live, men in this country, who are patriots and 
philanthropists, not merely in name, but in heart and 
practice ; men whose compassions have long since 
led them to pity the poor and despised sons of Afri- 
ca. They have heard their groans, and have seen 
their blood, and have looked with an holy indigna- 
tion upon the oppressor: nor was there any thing 
wanting except the power to have crushed the ty- 
rant and liberated the captive. Through their in- 
strumentality, the blessings of freedom have long 
since been enjoyed by all classes of people through- 
out New-England, and through their influence, un- 
der the Almighty, we are enabled to recognize the 
fourth day of the present month, as the day in which 
thejcause of justice and humanity have triumphed 
over tyranny and oppression, and slavery is forever 
banished from the state of New-York. 

Among the many who have vindicated the cause 
of the oppressed, within the limits of this state, we 
are proud to mention the names of Eddy and Mur- 
ray, of Jay and Tompkins, who, together with their 
fellow philanthropists embarked in the holy cause of 
emancipation, with a zeal which well expressed 
the sentiments of their hearts. They proved them- 
selves to be inflexible against scorn, persecution, 



15 

and contempt ; and although ail did not live to see 
the conflict ended, yet their survivors never relaxed 
their exertions until the glorious year of 1817, when, 
by the wise and patriotic legislature of this state, a 
law was passed for its final extirpation. We will 
mourn for those who are gone, we will honour those 
who survive, until time extinguishes the lamp of 
their existence. When dead, they shall still 
live in our memory ; we will follow them to their 
topdbs, we will wet their g^raves with our tears; and 
i/pon the heart of every descendant of Africa, their 
deeds shall be written, and their names shall vi- 
brate sweetly from ear to ear, down to the latest 
posterity. From what has already taken place, we 
are encouraged to expect still greater things. We 
look forward Avitli pleasing anticipation to that pe- 
riod, when it shall no longer be said that in a land 
of freemen there are men in bondage, but when 
this foul stain will be entirely erased, and this, 

worst of evils, will be forever done away. The pro- 
gress of emancipation, though slow, is nevertheless 

certain : It is certain, because that God who has 

made of one blood ajlnations of men, and who is 

said to be no respecter of persons, has so decreed ; 

I therefore have no hesitation in declaring from this 

sacred place, that not only throughout the United 

States of America, but throughout every part of the 

habitable world where slavery exists, it will be a- 

bolished. However grea t may be the opposition of 

those who are supported by the traffic, yet slavery 

will ceabc. The^jlordly planter who has his thousands 

in bondage, may stretch himself upon his couch of 



16. 

ivory, and sneer at the exertions which are made by 
the humane and benevolent, or he may take his 
stand upon the floor of Congress, and mock the piti- 
ful generosity of the east or west for daring to med- 
dle with the subject, and attempting to expose its 
injustice : he may threaten to resist all efforts for a 
general or a partial emancipation even to a dissolu- 
tion of the union. But still I declare that slavery 
will be extinct; a universal and not a partial emanci- 
pation must take place ; nor is the period far distant. 
The indefatigable exertions of the philantrophists in 
England to have it abolished in their West India 
Islands, the recent revolutions in South America, 
the catastrophe and exchange of power in the Isle 
of Hayti, the restless disposition of both master and 
slave in the southern states, the constitution of 
our government, the effects of literary and moral in- 
struction, the generous feelings of the pious and be- 
nevolent, the influence and spread of the holy reli- 
gion of the cross of Christ, and the irrevocable de- 
crees of Almighty God, all combine their efforts, 
and with united voice declare, that the power of 
tyranny must be subdued, the captive must be libe- 
rated, the oppressed go free, and slavery must 
revert back to its original chaos of darkness, and 
be forever annihilated from the earth, t Did I be- 
lieve that it would always continue, and that man 
to the end of time would be permitted with impuni- 
ty to usurp the same undue authority over his fellow, 
I would disallow any allegiance or obligation I was 
under to my fellow creatures, or any submission 
that I owed to the laws of my country ; I would deny 



the superintending power of divine providence in 
the affairs of this life; I would ridicule the religion 
of the Saviour of the world, and treat as the worst of 
men the ministers ofthe everlasting gospel; I would 
consider my Bible as a book of false and delusive fa- 
bles, and commit it to the flames ; nay, 1 would still 
go farther; I would at once confess myself an atheist, 
and deny the existence of a holy God. / 

But slavery will cease, and the equal rights of man 
will be universally acknowledged. Nor is its tardy 
progress any argument against its final accomplish- 
ment. But do I hear it loudly responded, — this is 
but a mere wild fanaticism, or at best but the mis- 
guided conjecture of an untutored descendant of 
Africa. Be it so, I confess my ignorance, and bow 
with due deterence to my superiors in understand- 
ing; but if in this case I err, the error is not peculiar 
to myself; if I wander, I wander in a region of light 
from whose political hemisphere the sun of liberty 
pours forth his refulgent rays, around which dazzle 
the star like countenances of Clarkson, Wilberforce, 
Pitt, Fox and Grenville, Washington, Adams, Jef- 
ferson, Hancock and Franklin ; if I err, it is their 
sentiments that have caused me to stray. For 
these are the doctrines which they taught while 
with us; nor can we reasonably expect that since 
they have entered the unbounded space of eternity, 
and have learned more familiarly the perfections of 
that God who governs all things that their senti- 
ments have altered. Could they now come forth 
among us, they would tell that what they have 
learned in the world of spirits, has served only to 



IB 

confirm what they taught while here ; they would 
tell us, that all things are rolling on according to 
the sovereign appointment of the eternal Jehovah, 
who will overturn and overturn until he whose right 
it is to reign, shall come and the period will be ush- 
ered in; when the inhabitants of the earth will 
learn by experience what they are now slow to be- 
lieve. — that our God is a God of justice, and no 
respecter of persons. But while, on the one hand, 
we look back and rejoice at what has already taken 
place, and on the other, we look forward with plea- 
sure to that period when men will be respected ac- 
cording to their characters, and not according to 
their complexion, and when their vices alone will 
render them contemptible ; while we rejoice at the 
thought of this land's becoming a land of freemen, 
we p^use, we reflect. What, we would ask, is liberty 
without virtue ? It tends to lasciviousness ; and 
whatis freedom but a curse, and even destruction, to 
the profligate.'* Not more desolating in its effects is the 
mountain torrent, breaking from its lofty confines and 
rushing with vast impetuosity upon the plains be- 
neath, marring as it advances all that is lovely 
in the works of nature and of art, than the votaries of 
vice and immorality, when permitted to range unres- 
trained. Brethren, we have been called into li- 
berty ; only let us use that liberty as not abu- 
sing it. This day commences a new era in our his- 
tory; new scenes, new prospects, open before lis, and 
it follows as a necessary consequence, that new du- 
ties devolve upon us; duties, which if properly atten- 
ded to, cannot fail to improve our moral condition, 



and elevate us to a rank of respectable standing 
Tvith tfie community; or if neglected, we fall at once 
into the abyss of contemptible wretchedness : It is 
righteou&ness alone that exalteth a nation, and sin 
is a reproach to any people. Our liberties, says Mr. 
Jefferson, are the gift of God, and they are not to be 
violated but with his wrath. Nations and individ- 
uals have been blest of the Almighty in proportion to 
the manner in which they have appreciated the mer- 
cies conferred upon them : an abuse of his goodness 
has always incured his righteous frown vvhile a right 
improvement of his beneficence has secured and 
perpetuated his gracious smiles ; an abuse of his 
goodness has caused those fearful judgments which 
have destroyed cities, demolished thrones, over- 
turned empires, and humbled to the dust, the proud- 
est and most exalted of nations. As a confirmation 
of which, the ruinous heaps of Egypt, Tyre, Baby- 
lon, and Jerusalem, stand as everlasting monuments 
If we would then answer the great design of our cre- 
ation, and glorify the God who has made us ; if we 
would avert the judgment of Heaven; if we would 
honor our public benefactors; if we would counter- 
act the designs of our enemies ; if we would have 
our own blessings perpetuated, and secure the hap- 
piness of our children and our children's children, 
let each come forward and act well his part, in 
whatever circle he may move, or in whatever sta- 
tion he may fill ; let the fear of God and the good of 
our fellow men, be the governing principles of the 
heart. We do well to remember, that every act of 
ours is more or Jess connected with the general 



20 

cause of the people of colour, and with the general 
cause of emancipation. Our conduct has an impor- 
tant bearing, not only on those who are yet in bond- 
age in this country, but its influence is extended to 
the isles of India, and to every part of the world 
where the abomination of slavery is known. Let us 
then relieve ourselves from the odious stigma w hich 
some have long since cast upon us. that we were in- 
capacitated by the God of nature, for the enjoyment 
of the rights of freemen, and convince them and the 
world that although our complexion may diflfer, yet 
we have hearts susceptible of feeling ; judgment ca- 
pable of discerning, and prudence sufficient to man- 
age our affairs with discretion, and by example 
prove ourselves worthy the blessings we enjoy. — 
That it is the duty of all rational creatures to con- 
sult the interest of their species, is a fact against 
which there can be no reasonable objection. It is 
recorded to the honour of Titus, who perhaps was 
the most benevolent of all the Roman emperors : on 
recollecting one evening that he had done nothing 
the day preceding, beneficial to mankind, the mon- 
arch exclaimed, 'I have lost a day." The wide field 
of usefulness is now open before us, and we are cal- 
led upon by every consideration of duty which we 
owe to our God, to ourselves, to our children, and 
to our fellow-creatures generally, to enter with a 
fixed determination to act well our part, and labour 
to promote the happiness and welfare of all. 

There remains much to be done, and there is much 
to encourage us to action. The foundation for lite- 
rary, moral and religious improvement, we trust, is 



21 

already laid in the formation of the public and pri- 
vate schools, for the instruction of our children, to- 
gether with the churches of different denominations 
already established. From these institutions we are 
encouraged to expect the happiest results ; and 
while mat]y of us are passing down the decHvity oi 
life, and fast hastening to the grave, how animating 
the thought, that the rising generation is advan- 
cing under more favourable auspicies than we were 
permitted to enjoy, soon to fill the places we now 
occupy; and in relation to them vast is the respon- 
sibility that rests upon us ; much of their future use- 
fulness depends upon the discharge of the du 
ties we owe them They are advancing, not to fill 
the place of slaves, but of freemen : and in order to 
fill such a station with honor to themselves, and with 
good to the public, how necessary their education, 
how important the moral and religious cultivation of 
their minds ! Blessed be God, we live in a day that 
our fathers desired to see, but died withoiit the sight: 
a day in which science, like the sun of the firr^ament, 
rising, darting as he advances his beams to evei ^ quar- 
ter of the globe. The mists and darkness scatterat his 
approach, and all nations and people are blessed with 
his rays ; so the glorious light of science is spreading 
from east to west, and Afric's sons are catching the 
glance of its beams as it passes ; its enlightening rays 
scatter the mists of moral darkness and ignorance 
which have but too long overshadow^ed their minds ; it 
enlightens the understanding, directs the thoughts of 
the heart, and is calculated to influence the soul to the 
performance of every good and virtuous act. The 



God of Nature has endowed our children with intel- 
lectual powers surpassed by none ; nor is there any 
thing wanting but their careful cultivation, in order to 
fit them for stations the most honorable, sacred, or 
useful. And may we not, without becoming vain in 
our imaginations, indulge the pleasing anticipation, 
that within the little circle of those connected with our 
families, there may hereafter be found the scholar, the 
statesman, or the herald of the cross of Christ : Is it 
too much to say, that among that little number there 
shall yet be one found like to the wise legislator of Is- 
rael, who shall take his brethren by the hand, and lead 
them forth from worse than Egyptian bondage, to 
the happy Canaan of civil and religious liberty ; or one 
whose devotedness towards the cause of God, and 
whose zeal for the salvation of Africa, shall cause him 
to leave the land which gave him birth, and cross the 
Atlantic, eager to plant the standard of the cross upon 
every hill of that vast continent, that has hitherto igno- 
bly submitted to the baleful crescent, or crouched un- 
der the iron bondage of the vilest superstition. Our 
prospects brighten as we pursue the subject, and wcv 
are encouraged to look forward to that period when 
the moral desert of Africa shall submit to cultivation, 
and verdant groves and fertile vallies, watered by the 
streams of Siloia, shall meet the eye that has long sur- 
veyed only the wide spread desolations of slavery, 
despotism, and death. How changed shall then be 
the aspect of the moral and political world ! Africa, 
elevated to more than her original dignity, and redress- 
ed for the man}^ aggravated and complicated wrongs 
?he has sustained, with her emancipated sons, shall 



23 

take her place among the other nations of the eanh. 
The iron manacles of slavery shall give place to the 
still stronger bonds of brotherly love and affection, 
and justice and equity shall be the governing princi- 
ples that shall regulate the conduct of men of every na- 
tion. Influenced by such motives, encouraged by such 
prospects, let us enter the field with a fixed determina- 
tion to live and to die in the holy cause. 



JVcimes of the Senators ivho voted for the Law, in 1817. 

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, Governor. 
JOHN TAYLER, Lt. Governor. 



Mr. Allen, Mr. Hascall, 


Mr. Ross, 


„ Becknell, „ Hart, 


„ Seymour, 


„ Bloom, „ Keyes, 


„ Stewart, 


,, Bowne, „ Knox, 


„ Tibbits, 


„ Cantine, „ Livingston, 


„ Van Buren, 


„ Crosby, „ Noyes, 


„ Van Vechten. 


„ Ditmis, „ Ogden, 


20 


frames of the Members of Assemhi 


ly who voted for the 


Law, in 1817. 




Mr. Albert, Mr. Ganson, 


Mr. Pettit, 


„ Ambler, „ A. Green, 


„ Piatt, 


„ Arnold, „ B. Green, 


„ Rochester, 


„ Barnes, „ Gross, 


„ Roseburgh, 


„ Barstow, „ Hamilton, 


„ Russell, 


„ Beach, „ Hammond, 


„ Sanford, 


„ Beckwith, „ Heeney, 


„ Sargent, 


„ Benton, „ Hopkins, 


„ E. Smith, 


„ Bro%vn, „ Hubbard, 


„ I. Smith, 


„ Camp, „ Keeler, 


„ R. Smith, 


„ Campbell, ,, Kissam, 


,, S. A. Smith, 


„ Carll, „ Lee, 


„ Squire, 


„ Carpenter, „ McFadden, 


„ Stebbins, 


„ Child „ Mann, 


„ Thompson, 


„ Concklin, „ Marsh, 


„ Townsend, 


„ Cook, „ Miles, 


„ Turner, 


„ Day, „ G. Miller, 


„ Wakely, 


„ Doty, „ L Miller, 


„ Walbridge, 


„ Duer, „ Mooers, 


„ Warner, 


„ Eldridge, „ Mott, 


„ Webb, 


„ Faulkner, „ Noble, 


„ Webster, 


„ Finch, „ Olmstead, 


„ White, 


„ Ford, „ Paine, 


„ I. Whitney, 


„ Gale, „ Palmer, 


„ Wilcoxsou, 


^, Gansevoort, „ Parsons, 


„ Wood. 7/1 



24 

HYMN. 

Tune—" V(m Halls^ Hymn?'' 

Afric's sons, awake, rejoice ! 
To you this day sounds freedom's voice ; 
This (hiy to lis our hirthright's given; 
United raise your thanks to heaven. 

IVIay every son, with grateful heart, 
This day from others set apart : 
The hour that first proclaim'd us free, 
Shall he our lasting jubilee. 

When history unrols her page 

Of Africa's degraded age. 

Then shall the dawn of freedom's light 

A radiance shed o'er slavery's night. 

Come, raise your thankful voice to Heaven ; 
To us Religion's truths are given ; 
In lands where late the heathen trod, 
Now Ethiopia seeks her God. 

O ! may he guide our rugged way ; 
Our tiame by night, our cloud by day ; 
Our injuries let all forgive. 
And by the gospel's precepts live. 



54 W 






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